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In Shimoga, India – Meeting Most of India’s Indigenous Cattle Breeds

Upclose and personal with a Krishna cow at the Hosanagara Gaushala (cow sanctuary) in Shimoga, Karnataka.

To years ago, I visited Dr. P.K. Singh the principal scientist at the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) in Karnal, Haryana. The NBAGR is dedicated to preserving, researching, and improving native breeds of livestock in India. Dr. Singh has surveyed every tribal people who breed and maintain native cattle. He graciously spent two days showing me farms around Karnal, informing me about the importance of India’s native breeds, and answering all my questions about cattle and culture. Dr. Singh suggested I visit a Gaushala in Karnataka that had nearly every breed of native cattle in one place to view the vast diversity of India’s cattle. At that time it seemed like a pie in the sky idea, but this year I was fortunate enough to be escorted to the Gaushala at Hosnanagara, Shimoga, in Karnataka by Dr. Singh’s associate Dr. Y.V. Krishnamoothy where I had an up close and personal tour of India’s diverse, beautiful, and fascinating native cattle.

These Sahiwal cows were as curious about me as I was about them. Sahiwal are a famous indigenous dairy breed.

Dr. Y.V. Krishnamoothy is the director of animal husbandry at the Honsanagara Shree Ramachandrapuramath Gaushala for Swami Shreemad Jagadguru Shankaracharya Shree Shree Shree Raghaveshwara Bharati Mahaswamiji. I had already met India’s smallest breed of cattle, the Kasaragod, earlier this year at the Thulumbhara pooja festival and information seminar in Perla, Kerala, where Dr. Krishnamoothy also served as my host. This time I met the doctor in Mangalore and we started our journey to the Gaushala by car through the stunning jungle mountains of the South West coast of India called the Western Ghats. These densely forested mountains still harbor tigers and other rare Indian wildlife. The 5 hour car ride wove through this beautiful landscape, clean and bright villages, and farmland. The journey gave the Doctor and I ample time to discuss the issues facing India’s native cattle and his role as a cattle advocate for his organization.

My guide at the Gaushala standing next to a fully grown jungle cow, these tiny cattle are native to the Western Ghats of South India where Shimoga is located.

For centuries, India’s tribal people have lived, worked, and died along side their cattle. Cattle are revered for their gifts to humanity – labor, food, material goods, and medicine. Maybe more than any other culture in the world, Indians have found a multiplicity of uses for cattle and their products. As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, cattle have been and are still used as tractors to pull plows and transport goods in carts, their manure is used to fertilize fields, make cooking fuel, as a building material, a cleaning agent and is used to make a variety of soaps and medicines. Their urine is also important in agricultural preparations and medicine. Cattle hides are turned into leather for clothing, belts, shoes, bags, and book-bindings. Their milk is often the only source of animal protein that certain Hindus will eat and is processed into curd (yogurt), paneer (fresh cheese), butter, buttermilk, chai (milk tea), and ghee (clarified butter used as cooking oil). Without the services and products that cattle provide life would be more laborious for humans and arguably less delicious.

This is me standing next to a Amrith Mahal bull. This breed was developed by the rulers of Mysore during the 15th century to transport army equipment. The original “war horse”?

On the five hour drive to the Gaushala, Dr. Krishnamoothy discussed the issues surrounding native cows. For most of India’s history, cows were more important for labor and fertilizer and milk was a welcome bi-product, but not the main reason to keep cattle. This has changed over the past fifty years. In my last blog, I touched on the Green Revolution, which changed India’s agriculture from organic farming to chemical based farming with government subsidized urea fertilizer. Since then herbicides and pesticides have become widely used as well. This initially increased the amount of food that was produced per hectare, but today the environmental costs have compounded and the continual increased use of urea is currently causing public health problems such as an increase in gout and spondylosis (degenerative osteoarthritis) as well as environmental problems like polluted water sheds and drinking water. During the late sixties India underwent a second agricultural revolution called the “White Revolution” in which the government promoted the use of India’s native Zebu cattle crossed with European dairy cattle to increase the production of milk. If a farmer wished to “improve” their native cattle by breeding them with European breeds the government provided subsidies for artificial insemination of foreign breed dairy cattle semen.

This is a Kankrej bull. Kankrej are dairy cattle from the deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Improving native dairy breeds may be more efficient than cross breeding native cattle to European dairy breeds.

The idea of breeding cattle using artificial insemination was initially resisted by farmers who, for religious reasons, believed that fertility should occur as nature and the gods and goddesses intended, but eventually bank balances began to overcome religious dogma and cross-bred cows became more common. This initially resulted in cows that did provide more milk. But the inability of the cross-bred cows to withstand the heat, and parasites affected production and the successive generations of cross-bred cows did not produce as much milk as the first generation of cross-bred cattle. But the government continued to promote crossbred cattle and continued the subsidies. Improving mixed breeds continues to be studied at institutions like the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal, Haryana – which I saw when I visited the institute two years ago. Aside from the problems with cow welfare, the emphasis on breeding dairy cattle that are not used to plow fields or pull carts (considered dual purpose breeds) has resulted in unwanted “useless” bull calves being turned onto the streets or sold for the underground slaughter trade in beef. It is illegal to slaughter cattle in every state but two in India, yet there remains an underground trade in cattle meat sold to Muslims and Christians (Hindus never eat beef, though they are increasingly eating chicken and goats). The cattle are butchered in facilities that process water buffalo. And worst of all, the promotion of crossbred cattle has resulted in the erosion of India’s amazingly diverse native breeds of cattle.

I met this farmer two years ago at his farm in Haryana. He claimed to be the first person in his area to embrace artificial insemination for his dairy cows. He sold his milk to a Nestle plant nearby his home.

Dr. Krishnamoothy told me that both agricultural revolutions the government has planned have damaged the economy. This is a significant issue since seventy percent of India’s population lives in the countryside and the majority of those people farm. Ultimately, the loss of India’s native cattle is the loss of an important part of India’s culture. The unique gifts that these cattle offer to sustainable agriculture in the places where they evolved will not easily be replaced once they are gone. Dr. Krishnamoothy is doing his part to maintain India’s cultural heritage by managing the animal husbandry of the 30 different breeds of cattle while also procuring enough dry and green feed for the vast herd. He and his family live in Perla, Kerala, a fair distance away from the Gaushala in Shimoga and he also travels the length and breath of India finding bulls for each of the breeds, which must be changed every four years to prevent inbreeding in the herds. The most pressing thing on Dr. Krishnamoothy’s mind at the moment is finding the funding to build a feed processing facility at the Gaushala where they intend to process 50-70 tons of cattle feed per month. They also need to buy ten hectares of land to increase their fresh feed production and improve their existing farmland. He hoped that I could offer some avenues for funding. Unfortunately for the moment all I can offer in ways of funding are my words and the ability to share my experience of this beautiful and important Gaushala. If you would like to donate to the Gaushala at Hosanagara please contact Dr. Y.V. Krishnamoothy at gou @hareraama.in or donate directly to his organization here: http://www.vishwahitam.org

An example of the diverse types of cattle living side by side at the Gaushala.

Finally, we reached the Gaushala where I would see the majority of India’s native breeds of cattle. The complex was serene and orderly and the doctor introduced me to my guide while he disappeared to attend to his business. My guide, Usha, was a woman who served as the computer expert and accountant for the Gaushala, and was a delightful and gracious guide. She first took me to the Ayurvedic panchagavya processing facility. Panchagavya roughly translates to “five cow products”, which are milk, curd, ghee, urine, and dung. Their pamphlet says “all these medicinal values are seen only in Indigenous cow’s products. Indigenous cows are useful to human beings as sources of medicine/economy/food/agriculture/energy, etc.” The doctor had told me that pure native cow products were more valuable for medicine and agriculture because of their increasing scarcity. For example a farmer is usually paid 16-20 rupees for a liter of milk, but now a liter of indigenous cow milk will fetch 35 rupees/liter. They make 24 products at the facility which include medicines that claim to increase the body’s resistance to cancer, treat gastric disorders, swelling, inflammation, disorders of nose and eyes, head aches, cold, or sinus problems and skin diseases; beauty products like face masks, hair toners, and tooth powder; agriculture products such as pesticide and a product that improves worm compost; and cleaning products like a dung based floor cleaner. Westerners may scoff at the effectiveness of these natural products, but scientific studies on several of these products are showing positive results.

Girls packaging panchagavya face mask at the Gaushala.

Cow dung soap is used to treat skin diseases.

At last I was shown to the barns, which were filled with cattle of every size and color. Almost all of the cattle were tied to troughs inside the long covered sheds, but some of the cattle were wandering loose and would come up to sniff me when I bent down to take a picture or ask for a head scratch. The cows were extremely friendly and several of them stood on their troughs to get a better position from which to have their heads and ears scratched. I had seen most of the big dairy breeds on my travels through Rajasthan and I had met Haryana and Gangatiri breeds when I visited Varanasi. I was getting better at differentiating a tiny jungle cow from a “normal” baby cow after going to the miniature cow festival in Perla, Kerala and recognized several of the native Southern breeds of working cattle I had seen pulling carts through the streets of Mysore and plows through the ubiquitous rice paddies of South India. But to see all the breeds gathered together was a truly special experience, made more so by the fact that I also gave most of them a scratch behind the ears. I left the Gaushala with a camera card full of photos and a joyful feeling in my heart. Preserving India’s indigenous breeds of cattle not only ensures that their unique gifts to humanity will remain available, but also their unique beauty, which in my opinion is well worth saving.

This is a Gaolao cow, a breed that was developed in the 18th century for quick transportation of the army.

A beautiful Gir cow. The best native miking breed in India.

A Baragur cow. From Tamil Nadu. These colorful cows are known for their speed and endurance.

This view of an Amrith Mahal cow shows off her amazing horns.

This Hallikar cow, native to Southern India, with the slender face and horns always reminds me of a deer.

This was Swamiji’s favorite bull.

Usha greeting one of her friends. Most of the cows enjoyed the attention.

Dear Kelsi,Great great work.Thanx a lot.This has generated a lot of enthusiasm to work for Indian breed cow.Beautiful photos….kindly provide us all the photos you have taken just for our collection.
Your usage”Cow Sancury” is very catchy and Hoisanagara will be a new destination in Karnataka tourism if we project it in this way.I work with Sri Ramachandrapur math as head of health dept and eager to meet you.
Hare Ram
Dr.Prasad

Wake up call for a lot of us. Collective effort is called for to preserve what is left of our heritage. Very grateful to the authoress who has taken pains to collate the data and provide us some outstanding photographs.

I read with interest your work on indigenous cows of India at the math.

I intend to start a dairy farm, with best quality, pure breed indigenous cows. I have an irrigated farm near Kalghatagi, in Karnataka. Initially, I intend to start with 9-10 cows and a bull. Please advise me whatever particulars you can share with me.

Kelsi-i like your simple style of writing with your expeirience,carry on.Gov matha has blessed you no doubt.The emotional side of native cows are also very interesting.There are many stories in each cowshed.i heard from my relatives ,in thier cowshed a cow missed in the nearby forest once while gracing.But returned after four years! Do you think crossbreeded cows has this emotional or loyalty feeling?Science doesnot empesise this.Whenever we are highly stressed ,native cows relieves you more than any other pet animals-instead of chewing antacid tablets associate with cows-Each hospital should have one cowshed!maybe bystanders ,doctors,paramedical staff can extend better empathy to the patient!

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate your kind words. Yes, I have observed a difference in the temperament between Indian Zebu cattle and Western cattle. I spent time on a ranch in Argentina where they kept a herd of pure bred Brahmin cattle (a mix of 4 indigenous Indian breeds used for beef cattle in the Americas) and a herd of western Hereford cattle. The Indian cows behaved differently than the Herefords. The Brahmin cattle were more interested in engaging with humans (I would say they were curious and friendly) and were much calmer. We never had to chase them when herding them through fields, they already knew where to go. This was very different than the behavior of the Hereford cows who were much more wild and sometimes dangerous. I wonder if the centuries of living in people’s households and being treated as members of the family has influenced the behavior of India’s native cows?- As well as the belief in ahimsa (do no harm), which I would argue is a major difference between India’s historic relationship toward animals and that of Europe and the Americas. I did volunteer at a hospital (a free clinic) in Mysore, Jag Therapy, that had a cow shed next to the treatment rooms. It was calming to look out the window at the cows and hear the clink of the cow bells. Children loved watching the cows too. I support your theory.

iNTERESTING,VIVID AND EYE OPENER DESCRIPTION OFI I CALL IT —BREED SAFARI..—awonderful stat for breed coservation.May Isuggest SWAMI JI to help starting similar breed SAFARI in Northern part also. on exchange basis I.E. WE SUPPLY INDIAN SIDE BREEDS AND IN EXCHANGE THIS SIDE GETS SOUTHEN &CENTRAL BREEDS. as per the desire of REV. SWAMI JI

Hi Kelsi,
Here i am happy to know your interest in native breeds of India and also appreciating for your great job & approach, could you pl z send me other snap of native cow breed of India.
i want to start a companion “Save your native breeds & Save your Identity” in this platform i also need your opinion & views.
Because humanity is not only concerns with human.

A great show case of cows who have fed generations of Indians. It is a great effort on your fart. I a love cows more than any other animals. We had three in our stable; mother named them Janaki, Sumathi and Nandini. They recognise their name called. The death of Nandini still is an unheeled wound in my memory.

I Scotland few scientists have recently found out giving a name to each household cow a name and hang arourd its necka bell will is a good way to make it love you. Touching her and caressing her yield more milk, the sudy further says. Kerala households used to do it in my childhood days. Not any more I think.

I cann’t imagine an India without our Cows. We in Kerala have a mini cow, called Vechoor Pasu (Pasu means Cow in Malayalam). It was almost extinct when a cow loving old man found one in its original home Vechoor, near my native town of Vaikom. Now Agr JUniversity of Kerala is in the process of bredding them. You have to see one to believe how small it is in size. Any child can tend. It eats less and yield less milk. But the milk has many
curative values, scientists now testify.

I am Ramesh from Tamil Nadu. I am a post Graduate. I like very much country
cows because that is my heart. In feature i will start a dairy farm fully country cows only. Mainly two important things one is rare breed development another motive is service to the people. So pls guide me and help to develop my ambition. I realy thousands of thanks to Respected Swamiji. I need Respected Swamiji’s Answer. Thank u very – Ramesh

I thank you immensely from the bottom of my heart for rendering the yeomen service to safeguard the mother cow and hope this noble cause will continue till your last breath. May god bless you bountifully.

Its nice reading your blogs…very informative.
Your keen interest on native breeds, and moreover, your sheer love for the species as such is vastly commendable.
I had the opportunity to attend the Global Agribusiness and Food Processing Summit held recently. Our union minister for corporate affairs made an open statement in front of formidable audience that his mother (assumed to be a single mom) supported his childhood and education with a single cow as the only means of livelihood. Then, he went on to suggest what can result out of a nation if every farmer/entrepreneur embraced cattle rearing with its variety of benefits. I was impressed by his speech….now, I stand impressed by your fieldwork in this arena, providing adequate insight for people willing to take up projects. You stand shining with regard to your keen interest for cattle, which many eminent people have not pursued. Great work Kelsi.

Kindly accept my greetings and appreciation for this beautifully written article with lots of information packed in.
Cross breeding, AIs, craze for non-indigenous cow breeds, introduction of tractor in farming, ‘green revolution’ etc are a real nasty tricks played by motivated people to swerve the gullible indian farmers from their original path of cow protection, agriculture and spirituality.
Regards
Dr Vrinda Baxi

That’s a great article regard Indian origin cow’s,i would like to know about whether all those cattle’s can be adapted to karnataka’s weather,i’m from chikkamagalur and I was alway’s interested in diversified varieties of desi cattle’s,so pls guide me..regard’s Darshan..

Thank you for such a nice article, looking forward to make a visit to this wonderful Goshala at Shimoga! With blessings from all you cow lovers out there may i also be able to serve mother cow in my near future!
Hare Krishna!
Manasaganga

Nice naration. But it is sad that we are finding less of these cattles among farmers and other cattle keepers. I sincearly doubt surviivbality of genatic quality and purity of these cattles in Goshalas.

An amazing effort by Kelsi to highlight the importance of our own indigenous cow breeds & their conservation. Our own govt.’s have failed to recognize these indigenous breeds whereas countries like Brazil & USA have long ago realized this & have used our cattle to develop their livestock.

only brazil use our indian cow as a dairy cattle, but australin govt. use our brahmin bull as a mit purpose only. very sad. our government ignore our herd. Every states of our country must maintain their original breed.

Great to see these comments. Charaka Dairy ( http://www.Charaka.co.in) based out of Hyderabad is dedicated to doing its best in getting back the lost glory of Indian Cow( Desi Cow) or Technically Bos Indicus breed of being the cultural and economic center of the country.

Before envisaging Operation Flood ( White Revolution) there were 70+ breed of Bos Indicus, Now, hardly 30 exist. out of them about 10 are in the verge of extinction.

Btw, Bos Indicus Milk is A2 milk Human should drink this milk. AND SHOULD NOT DRINK A1 milk given by HF /Jersey breeds as it is found to cause lot of diseases.

Great work done by Sri Sri Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swamiji of
Sri Ramachandapurmath,Hosanagara,Shimoga, Karnataka,
The protection of India cow breads is required to save India.
So we all should join hands in this movement.Kelsi Nagy article
is an eye opening one.
GGHegde,Talekeri

congratulations to ‘world cow girl’ Keilsy Nagy for superb narration of your visit to Shri Ramachandrapur Math, Karnataka and your intrest in Indian cattle.
Sri Ramachandapurmath,Hosanagara,Shimoga, Karnataka is the only place in India where we can find 32 indigenous cattle breeds at one place. Ramachandrapur math is one of the good platform for creating the awareness about our indigenous cows among the public. Recently i too visted the Sri Ramachandrapur math, it was really great experience to see valuable Animal Genertic Resiurce of India. Still majority of Indian population not aware of Indigenous cattle and they are blindly going for indiscriminate cross-breeding, therefor this crossbreeding leading to genetic erosion of Indigenous Zebu cattle. At present, there is need for stong breeding policy with respect to conservation of native cattle breeds and wider publicity on indigenous cattle, their utility, disease resistance, pest tolerence and their surviability on poor quality agriculturural byproducts.

Interesting reading.Will make a trip to Shimoga to see and enjoy these breeds first hand.
I am from Mangalore,can you please let me know if there is a place in Mangalore where I can get milk from one of these cows.
Thanks and a job well done.

I am a zero budget natural farmer from Kerala and looking after 18 indigenous cows of Kerala in my house. My aim is to protect the precious animals from misuse and extinction. I would like to get support from kind hearted people who share my feeling towards these animals. It is a real PUNYAM to love and care them as a part of your life. I am basically a retired defence engineer who settled down in village by choice because I found a meaningful life. Please share your feelings and give me support in taking this project froward. My name is Unnikrishnan and mobile no is – 8281078496.

Iam thankful for providing valuable information on Desi cows&particularly to guruji,forexhibeting different kinds of Desi cow breeds in one place. It is the duty of state governments/vet, animal husbandry/agriuniversities to realise the wrong polaceis adapted by introduction of uropean breeds in India,with out understanding values of indigenous cows this is mainly due to fault of our education system. Milk is used right from child to aged people,can we estimate loss incurred due to drinking of A1 milk of H F breeds.we are doing same mistics in agriculthure/ medical departments also. At present state govt, should initiate perfect policy to evaluate potecial genotypes of indigenous cows to improve milk yields by retaking the original values Desi cow milk. Brazil , Australia, malesia countries, when developing milk yields by utilizing Indian breeds, why it is not possible in India. Extension dept,/ at all the schools , farmers, students should be educated on this lines in order to alert the important health values of Desi cow milk.

History has taught has great lesson – “Be skeptic about outsiders interest in India, they will here to TAKE”. People are not being educated about the ill-intentions of these kind of study done by outsiders. We have seen many bad effects of Colonialism in India, in fields of : Language, Science , Technology etc.
Now the author of is article is funded to colonize the dairy farming in Indian tradition (And help major european companies like nestly , UL to to grow and come in terms with them). Learn about our superior farming method used by our farmers from studies done by Mr.Claude Alvares. We don’t need any of the western methods.

Another ulterior motive is to promote eating cow or beef to divide a truly secular nation. Its a well know fact that Brits started imposing Muslims to eat more beef and harm the social ordinance. These kind of study help in understanding and coming up with a systematic strategy on creating a disharmony (see the e.g of syria today).

Question to the author:
1. Is your meal is without Animal fat / meat?
2. If your study is honestly to persevere the animals. I don’t see any point in these studies, I don’t see any of your studies are stronger than industries controlling the food/dairy market. So there is no impact.

Before taking the “Native” knowledge from India. Some few questions to yourself: 1. Am I making any good to these innocent people? 2. Am I copying the “Native’s” work without siting? 3. And How my work has ill-effect on Indian people.

Dear Sir, I have approved your comment to be posted because I believe that everyone has the right to their uncensored opinion. I share your concern that research from outsiders has the propensity to exploit India for foreign gain. For the record, with the exception of a small grant from the Culture and Animals Society, I am self funded and no outside interests are profiting from my research. I am motivated to write about cows to help share cultural understanding and my aim in this post was to highlight the importance of native breeds for the people of India. To the best of my ability I try to stay sincere in expressing the aims and opinions of the people I interview in India. I found during my travels that many people in India are unaware of the importance of native breeds or the significant welfare issues cattle face in India (and around the world). This is the main motivation for my research and you are free to interpret it as you will. Thank you for sharing your concerns. All the best, Kelsi

Hi, great.
Nowadays these cow sanctuary is spreading across India.
Recently ” goumangal yatra ” was conducted& got huge response.
In puttur (near to Mangalore) also one Gouvihar is developed for saving Indian cow breads.
Thanks.

ahhh so amazing time to read this content. we grew with cows as a member of our child hood. every action of those cows young, old , bull and so many around it is all past impossible to get back now. i have seen women weeping when a cows ends its life ….as though that was their own member of family…

Recently we have built a Temple in TamilNadu and we want to donate a Desi cow for the temple. It would be a great help if you can guide me what breed should i buy so that it would be easy for the priest to maintain and he can find easy to cross the bread.

If you can send an email or tell me whom shouid i contact. it would be of a great help. (ravip101080@gmail.com)

Thank you for this informative website. I’m interested in buying cattle from you. We’re based in South India. We’re interested in high quality lean beef production and prefer naturally fed animals. We are at present focussing on India and plan to export beef to the Middle East and North Africa.

World Cow Girl is made possible by funding from Culture & Animals Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing animal advocacy through intellectual and artistic expression. Learn more at www.cultureandanimals.org